Unprepared and Embarassed

T

THENASH

New member
So last night around 3am I was jostled out of my slumber by three large bangs, the kind that sound like someone kicking a door down, and then the sound of a closing backyard gate. I get out of bed and look out my window which overlooks my backyard. I see nothing. I go for my weapon, which ISN'T there. I rush down stairs, passing my still sleeping Bulldog, and look out the front windows. I see a person about 5'11'' wearing all dark colors, on foot and walking fast, exiting my neighborhood. I proceed to my car out back to retrieve my gun. On the way I grab my phone that is sitting on the dining room table and I have to turn on my backyard lights to see my way to my car. On the way I call the police and they send a few cars out to partrol
the neighborhoods. No one was found as far as I know.

HOW EMBARASSING.

Here I am a big proponent of CHL and self defense, and I left my gun in my car, my phone downstairs, and I have no flashlight near me.

To make me feel better, instead of sharing your stories about how you were prepared for self defense and drew down on someone, let me hear your stories about how you fumbled your way through a potentially dangerous scenario. Come on! It will be fun!
 
I live on a ranch/farm and have a 'take-home' patrol unit. (I was NOT on duty this night) One night during the summer, I was changing irrigating water and saw a vehicle drive past our place and out into the pasture. (lots of canyons where some kids used to park before I bought the place). Needless to say this pissed me off, so I got out of my farm truck and into my patrol unit to go chase them off. I didn't go inside to grab a handgun since I knew there was a shotgun and rifle in the car if I needed one.

I pulled up to the vehicle that had backed into an area with some trees and something gave me a real uneasy feeling. Called dispatch and let them know what I was doing in case something went south.

Turns out that I caught a local politician's wife and another married local getting ready to start knockin' boots in the back of an SUV. They apologized profusely and were scared s***less...probably because they were dealing with a 6'02/230llb man wearing blue jeans/knee high irrigating boots/no shirt/a mouthful of Redman/cap on backwards (normal irrigating apparel out here) holding a sawed off shotgun on the shoulder and driving a Sheriff patrol unit.

Does it get any more redneck than that? I was clueless about how I must have looked until I drove off and went back to checking fields.
 
a 6'02/230llb man wearing blue jeans/knee high irrigating boots/no shirt/a mouthful of Redman/cap on backwards (normal irrigating apparel out here) holding a sawed off shotgun on the shoulder and driving a Sheriff patrol unit.
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Pure Americana' :cool:
 
For awhile we had a young man dealing dope down at the other end of my dead end road. Slime balls came and went at all hours of the night. Now and then something in the neighborhood came up missing.

One night at 2AM I sensed a car drive into my driveway and turn off the lights. I peeked out my bedroom window and saw a car with occupants sitting quietly in my dirveway. No one was moving. I picked up my loaded revolver and hit the button on my garage door to investigate. Once the door started to open and the light came on, they drove away. I wasn't sure if they were trying to see signs of life within my home or waiting on the dope dealer to come by with the Meth. What ever they were up to, I made a mistake.

I could have easily picked up my loaded SKS and slipped out the back door where I could have either worked my way around to the side of them or behind them and obtained their license number. If they got out of the car I would have had cover and the advantage. At the least, I could have scarred the bejesus out of them. If they tried to break into my house, they would have regretted it. Next time I'll do better. The dope dealer moved and things are quieter now.
 
Hey, it usually only takes one time to figure it out.....if you live. :)


"Always place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark"
Lazarus Long
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This says it all. Keep your pants loaded and ready to go too. It also makes it a lot easier on you and the wife when you have to get up at 3:45 to go to work and get dressed in the dark. You can usually tell the people who get dressed in the dark and didnt prepare the night before. :D
 
Quote:
a 6'02/230llb man wearing blue jeans/knee high irrigating boots/no shirt/a mouthful of Redman/cap on backwards (normal irrigating apparel out here) holding a sawed off shotgun on the shoulder and driving a Sheriff patrol unit.
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Pure Americana'
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No, pure TEXAN.

Give us Texans a good name :D
 
I had posted this in our local forum....

So I get up very early in the morning, as is my habit, and step quietly out of my bedroom into the upstairs hallway, shutting the bedroom door silently behind me so as not to wake up my wife. Instantly I can hear that there is an intruder in the lower part of the house...and he is not all that interested in being quiet--I can hear him thumping and banging around downstairs. As I stand there in a semi-shocked state for the longest 2 seconds of my life, edging closer to the hallway railing trying to get a fix on the noise downstairs, the downstairs motion detector alarm goes off.

So what do I do, standing there in the upstairs hallway, with the gun sitting next to my bed in the room behind me, and an intruder somewhere in my house below in the middle of the night and the downstairs intruder alarm going off? Right! I do what every highly trained, ex-military, heat-packing, home-defending, permit carrying commando would do, of course:

I run directly downstairs in my underwear without so much as a toothbrush in my hand to confront the intruder. Doh!

But hell! I certainly wasn't going to take the chance of waking up my wife by going back in to get the gun! I'd far rather face an intruder unarmed than wake her up at that hour! (As it turns out, as I ran downstairs setting off the upstairs motion detector, she sat straight up in bed, awakened by the alarms, figured I would take care of whatever the problem was and laid down and went right back to sleep. After all, why should she be worried...she's got the gun! Thanks for having my back, sweety !)

So after 30 seconds of sheer chaos, with all alarms going off, and checking all the downstairs windows and doors to find them secure, and shutting off the alarms, here is what I discover. Somehow (still have no idea how this happened--we have lived here 16 years and never had it happen before), a bird got trapped inside an interior wall in the middle of the house downstairs and was flapping and crashing against the wall trying to work its way back out. That was the noise. And the downstairs motion detector alarm had been just slightly turned off its axis enough to have seen my feet in the upstairs hallway as I edged up next to the hallway railing trying to see and hear what was going on downstairs. So of course it went off at that same exact instant.

Too funny, at least once my heart stopped pounding. Good thing I work out regularly. But there may be a lesson or two in this situation for me.
1) Don't worry about waking her up going back in to get the gun in case of such an emergency--after all, if I get to it before she awakens, I will have the gun at that point, not her, so what can she do to me?
2) Thinking carefully through every possible situation in emergencies before they happen pays huge dividends in being prepared beforehand. You may want to be sure, in bad situations, that you have your tactical wear on. Sure glad I was prepared for just such a thing and was at least wearing underwear!
3) Depending on what time of the night it is, the cavalry may have gone back to sleep and may not be coming to help. You are best off by assuming that you are going to have to handle this alone. Mano e errr, bird.
4) It is never good to bring a toothbrush to a gun fight, but better a toothbrush than nothing at all.
5) If you shoot first and ask questions later, you better be sure that the right hunting season is in progress.
6) The very best way to be sure you don't shoot first is to leave the gun behind.
7) When the alarms are screaming and the lights flashing, and you haven't had your first cup of coffee yet, you don't always do what you thought you would.
 
I was sleeping with my girlfriend and I awoke when our dog jumped on the bed. I realized he was trying to look outside, and I heard someone walking slowly along the side of the house, from the cracked-open window.

I didn't have a gun then, but I don't think it would have mattered, because I immediately jumped up and ran full speed out the back door. I was in my underwear only and barefoot, and I came running full speed around the side of the house, ready for battle - and it was just a big German Shepard sniffing around.

Afterward, I realized I had a big dose of adrenaline in my system, and wondered how crazy that would have been if it was a peeping-tom or burglar or something.
 
Hmmm, I'm able to get around issues like this by keeping a gun in my home office, my bedroom and master bathroom. Solution: Get more guns.
 
I was in my underwear only and barefoot, and I came running full speed around the side of the house, ready for battle - and it was just a big German Shepard sniffing around.

Afterward, I realized I had a big dose of adrenaline in my system, and wondered how crazy that would have been if it was a peeping-tom or burglar or something.
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eltorrente, I have 2 questions:

1. Is it just me or was that German Shephard in your incident more dangerous than a peeping tom may have been?

2. Did you go back in and tell your girlfriend that you scared a dog away...or did you spice it up a little bit and say that you faced off against a group of escaped convicts in nothing but your boxers and they left? More 'Hero' rewards for the latter. LOL.

Kudos to everyone who rushes to confront an enemy...even if you aren't dressed for it, or if it isn't tactically sound...the world needs more real men and less girlie men. (I am talking about the guts behind this...please nobody bombard me with tactical advice...you know what I am talking about here)
 
Some years ago, . . . living in a large metropolitan city, . . . I had a Triumph motorcycle that had been turned into a "sorta" Easy Rider type chopper. It was my pride and joy, . . . and I was very protective of it.:)

Sitting in the dining room one night, . . . I heard what sounded like someone attempting to take off the protective plastic sheeting I had over the bike (I didn't have and couldn't afford a garage at the time).

What do I do? Grabbed my Colt .38 Det Spec and a reload, . . . started out the front door but stopped. I reasoned if I went around the North side of the house, . . . they would disappear off the South, . . . and of course vice versa.

Wound up going straight out the back door, . . . face to face with who ever was trying to steal my bike, . . . :mad:

Turned out to only be the wind (couldn't hear it blowing inside, . . . just the plastic rattling) and when one sheet of the plastic moved, . . . well, I didn't shoot, . . . but only because my military training kicked in and I really tried to ID the target, . . . which only turned out to be the wind.

Couple of hours later the adrenaline wore off and I was able to get to sleep.:D

May God bless,
Dwight

PS: If you wanted to stage that picture again, Bounty Hunter, . . . I'd love a copy for my office wall. There's also a greeting card company sells outlandish birthday & other cards in the South. They might buy a copy :)
 
It's 2:18am when my wife and I are awakened by someone trying to lightly walk across the flat roof of our townhome. Even though they were moving carefully, the *crunch* *creak* of the ceiling made it sound like someone in infantry boots. I jumped up, slipped on a pair of sweat pants and moccasin slippers, grabbed my Colt 1911 and a flashlight. While doing so, I told my wife to call 911 then left the room.

At the front door I can hear the person at the edge of the house roof. I quietly unchain and unlock the door and ease out, flashlight and gun at the ready. Check hammer, it's down, meaning the chamber is empty.

*Thump*

I see the intruder dimly outlined against the townhouse next door, standing on the fence, since it's the only thing closer to the roof than the ground. I jack the slide back and let it fly, point the gun and click on the flashlight, yelling Don't Move!.

And on the fence I see....
A naked fifteen year old girl with eyes as big as dinner plates! :confused: Uhhhh.. not quite what I expected.

Turns out she was "visting" her seventeen year old boyfriend when his parents came home...with the boy's grandparents in tow... shouting for the boy to get up. She bailed out a window with her clothes in hand and was trying to get distance before stopping to put them on.

Unfortunately, my shout had awakened several neighbors who also saw what was going on. I kept waiting for the PD to arrive and finally a neighbor called it in. When they finally arrived, the girl was dressed, thoroughly embarrased and escorted home (that would have been an interesting conversation with her parents!). The PD did contact the boyfriend's family too, which I'm sure made life interesting for them as well.

When I got back inside, almost 90 minutes later, my wife was fast asleep, had never called 911 and was casual about it... "You had the gun and I knew you could handle it unless I heard gunfire. G'nite." :rolleyes: :mad:

Downside... no backup, wife in dreamland, aging batteries in the flashlight started going after about 5 minutes, being so ..uhh.. "focused" on an unexpected sight that I failed to watch-six or even check the roof for a 2nd person. Sweats have no pockets for a cell phone and I didn't grab mine anyhow. Not the best performance, but at least it wasn't a serious threat.
 
eltorrente, I have 2 questions:

1. Is it just me or was that German Shephard in your incident more dangerous than a peeping tom may have been?

2. Did you go back in and tell your girlfriend that you scared a dog away...or did you spice it up a little bit and say that you faced off against a group of escaped convicts in nothing but your boxers and they left? More 'Hero' rewards for the latter. LOL.
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Heh, yeah the German Shephard could have eaten me I suppose, but it lived in a house somewhere up the street and luckily it "knew" us and most people on our street.

When I got back in bed, my girlfriend didn't even know that anything had happened, and was more interested in getting back to sleep than hear my tale of bravery. :D
 
While on routine patrol late one night, I found the door open to a mobile home that was for sale on a MH lot...we'd had trouble with people breaking in these units, and stealing couches, stoves, reefers, etc.

So, I stepped into the door with my Magcharger on and looked into the kitchen. The reefer, stove and dinette set were all there.

Looked to the left into the living room to check on the couch, coffee table, etc, and lo and behold there was a guy shining a flashlight back at me, and a BRIGHT light, too! Scared the bejeebers out of me and hurt my night vision, really hard to see now.

Decided to go ahead and draw down on the guy and figure it out later, so I go to draw, and the guy with the flashlight draws his weapon too!

WTF? is this the opening scene of "Gunsmoke" or what?

So, I moved to my left toward the door and the SOB does the SAME THING! Looks like we're going to run into each other!

BUT...about the time we both move one or two steps, he ups and dissappears, where did he go?

I peer around the door to find him with my light, and finally see who the offender is..it's ME, watching my reflection in the full length mirrror in the living room.

Yeah, you laugh now, like you've never done that (or something so goofy).

BUT, one of us could have been seriously shot, maybe even suffered a "shattered life" forever !!
 
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